Listen
by flutesrtooty
Summary: August Rush Now that Lyla and Louis have found their son, August expects the three to automatically become a nuclear family. But before they can do that, August must teach his parents to listen to the music. And it might be harder than they thought.
1. Introduction

A/N: So this is just a test run of the introduction. I'm going crazy with all kinds of final exams and papers that are due in the next two days, but this has been my study break material… tell me what you think, constructive reviews are much appreciated! This version will most likely be edited and reposted at some point in time

-Listen-

Introduction

Lyla's breath caught in her throat when she heard the final four chimes that concluded the symphony. She had only heard good things about the young musical prodigy, attending Julliard at the tender age of eleven and having his work featured following her appearance. She could remember tuning out Lizzie's voice when they were talking about him, realizing that her son was the same age as this boy and wondering whether he felt the music inside of him, the way she had when she was younger. It was softer in her soul now, dimmed by years of suppressing her creativity and her refusal to go on with her life without her son. But never could she have imagined that he was the eleven year old boy she'd been searching for, but she heard the symphony and it called to her in the way music used to call to her, almost a decade ago. It was young and fresh, yet sophisticated and clean, and the swells in the music perfectly translated the swells she felt in her heart whenever she thought about the son she had mourned for so long. And when she felt the warm body beside her slip a hand into hers, she thought her heart would burst; the moment couldn't have been more perfect.

The audience was wildly clapping and cheering for the young boy, who stood on the stage grinning broadly. He didn't seem to take notice of the thousands of people applauding; he only stared at Lyla, who held his gaze.

"That was beautiful." She nearly whispered. She was finding it difficult to find enough air in her lungs to speak any louder.

"The music kinda calls to you, don't it?" Louis said, looking first at Lyla, with an expression of disbelief that she was really standing beside him, and then to August. "He's a talented little boy, that one."

"He's our little boy." Lyla said, in a clear and resolute voice this time, tears building in her eyes.

Louis continued smiling for a moment, nodding his head, but his face dropped when Lyla's words registered in his head. "**Our **little boy?!" He turned to face Lyla, his voice cracking. "That child up there is ours?" His voice rose with disbelief.

"I couldn't find a way to contact you. Then there was an accident, and my father made me believe I lost him. He was in a foster home until he ran away. I've been searching for him for months." The entire time Lyla spoke, her eyes remained focused on August, who was greeted by Mr. Jeffries as he exited the stage. Mr. Jeffries caught Lyla's eyes and motioned for her to come backstage. She turned to Louis, tears already streaming down her face. She grabbed his other hand and her eyes pleaded with his. "My father believed that you would bolt if you found out about this child. Prove him wrong, Louis, and come with me." She begged him.

Perhaps he was just caught up in the moment, but Louis was sure he could still hear the crescendo of the symphony as he leaned forward and kissed Lyla with all of the passion that had built up and been set aside for twelve years. "He couldn't've been more wrong." Louis murmured, leaning his forehead against hers before giving her another kiss, this time a quick peck on the lips. "Let's meet our son." He grinned crookedly, astonished at the reality of the words that he had spoken. Lyla turned around and led him to the side of the stage where Mr. Jeffries stood waiting.

He stepped forward, wanting to speak with Lyla before he introduced her to her son. "Miss Novacek, you have no idea how happy I am that you have found your son. I figured everything out only a short time ago, and came over here as soon as I could. But, Evan, or August—he's been going by another name for nearly four months—well, he's pretty convinced that both his mother and father are…" Mr. Jeffries stopped speaking when he saw a man step forward whose shocking blue eyes matched Evan's perfectly. "Miss Novacek, you told me you couldn't find his father." He stated in an undertone, not wanting Louis to hear.

Lyla just smiled and laughed softly. "Two in one night, Mr. Jeffries, what are the chances of that?" Her eyes glittered with a happiness he had never seen from her. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to meet my son."

As if on cue, August burst forward, running from his group of friends from the church. "I knew you'd hear the music! I knew you'd follow it to me!" He yelled, exhilarated, and ran to envelope himself around Lyla's waist. Louis chuckled and Lyla crouched down to give him a proper hug. "I wrote my symphony for you, so you could hear the music you gave to me, and find me! I always knew you wanted to find me; everybody thought I was crazy, but you believe me, right? I always knew you wanted to find me!" He was so excited he could hardly get the words out fast enough.

"Evan!" Mr. Jeffries interrupted. "This is your mother and father, Lyla Novacek and…"

"Louis Connelly." Louis finished his sentence. "We already met this afternoon. I'm glad to see you made it to your concert."


	2. Chapter One

A/N: First of all, can I say thank you so much for the great response!!!! Here's Chapter One, I'm sorry it took so long :)

Chapter One

Two hours, six cups of coffee, and two chocolate milkshakes later, Lyla, Louis, Mr. Jeffries and August had recounted the story from the moonlit meeting to the last minute dash on August's and Louis' parts to the concert. Evan and August were in fact one and the same person as Mr. Jeffries had realized as he was closing his office, and Louis had unknowingly met his son in Washington Square Park earlier that afternoon. The information August had on Wizard was enough for the State to bring charges against him without a testimony from August or any of the kids who lived in the run-down theatre. The information Lyla had about August and Louis was enough for Mr. Jeffries to grant the two a shared temporary custody of the child, although unofficial until Monday morning, until a judge could hear the case. This would take approximately two weeks, and Mr. Jeffries assured the two that as long as they could make a good case that they would be adequate caregivers, August would be officially recognized by the state as their son and they would be his guardians. Things were looking up.

Now came the awkward part of the night, when the four stood up from the diner table and went home for the night. Mr. Jeffries made a quick exit, flagging down the first available taxi to bring him to his apartment only a few blocks from his office building. The taxi driver's loud Indian music could be heard from the sidewalk where Lyla, Louis, and August stood. The music only grew louder when Mr. Jeffries opened the rear door and then paused, looking back at them. He bid them goodnight with a promise of seeing them on Monday before ducking into the taxi and driving away. Lyla and Louis stood on the sidewalk uncomfortably while August watched them expectantly. "Well then," Louis spoke up. "I guess I'll be escorting you two on home." Lyla's sigh of relief was slight but noticeable as she grabbed Louis' hand on one side and August's on the other, and they began their trek.

The silence between the three grew heavier as the minutes passed, although the noises of the city around them filled the void. Other pedestrians' dialogue caught August's ears, shopkeepers shouted to one another as they packed up their outdoor displays, and the traffic that made New York famous whizzed past. These were the same sounds that had inspired August in his symphony, but he could see that his parents only noticed the lack of conversation between the new family. "Up until you came to the city, your name was Evan. But everybody here calls you August… which would you prefer us to call you?" Lyla voiced to her son a concern that had been building up inside of her. "You can't have two names."

"I've been called Evan since I can remember." The boy frowned. "But I like my new name. Wizard gave it to me because I needed to stand out. But I already knew I was different because of the music that you gave to me. I think that my new name gave me a new start. Can I keep the name August? And I can take my father's last name, because that's what everybody does, right?" Lyla's laughter tinkled through the night air at his reasoning. It was so simple, but it made all the sense in the world.

"August Connelly." Louis sounded it out with his thick Irish brogue before breaking out into a big grin. "Rolls off the tongue quite nice, don't it?" The other two nodded and sounded out murmurs of agreement as Lyla pulled Louis and August in closer to her. "But maybe you should keep Rush for a stage name. Don't want 'em mixing you up with your da." He laughed. "Us Connelly Brothers have got a nasty reputation."

August's eyes grew large. "Are you famous?" He asked, with a hint of awe in his voice.

"Not as famous as you or your ma." He said with a smile at Lyla, whose eyes gleamed back at him. The electricity between the two was undeniable, and any passerby could hear the reverence with which he spoke those words. Tearing his eyes away from her, he turned back to August. "You'll meet your uncle soon, and you'll understand. We're in a band with two other blokes from me hometown, and made some good money on tour of the country twelve years back. That's when I met your ma." He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed it back.

They fell back into a more comfortable silence, walking at a steady pace until Lyla stopped at a crosswalk. "My apartment is right across the way." She pointed to a tall building. Louis looked around, recognizing his surroundings. Only one building over was the apartment he had shared with his brother and friends that summer they spent in New York, and further down the boulevard was Washington Square Park. He looked at her in amazement. "It reminded me of what I was looking for." She explained quietly. She looked over at the park, and the benches that were around the fountain, just behind the arch. "I spent so many afternoons in that park when I was pregnant. It was just a blind hope that you would show up there again."

August listened eagerly. He understood that this was not only the reunion of him with his parents, but their own personal reunion as well. It was promising for him to hear them recounting their memories of each other with such passion and emotion.

"We went back home for a few months, but when summer came, I came back here every day. I guess I had the same rash notion." He grinned nostalgically at the memory. "I couldn't stand him telling me you'd run off with another bloke."

"I never found anybody else." She whispered. Suddenly the pedestrian signal beeped at them, interrupting their memories and telling them they could cross in the designated crosswalk. The three approached the apartment building and Louis prepared to say goodnight to the pair, but Lyla protested and suggested that he help her in getting August settled in. August could only grin and stifle a yawn as his parents looked down at him with love in their eyes. Lyla led the two up the stairs to her apartment, and both gawked once they stood in the living room and saw the view. August recalled his 'spot' in that park, the one Wizard used to have, and Louis remembered not only his encounter with his son earlier in the day, but also his experience with Lyla twelve years before, looking down at the same view he saw now.

With very little protest on August's part, since he barely had the energy to stand any longer, Lyla and Louis gathered blankets and a pillow and tucked their newfound son into bed. From his makeshift bed on the living room couch, August could hear the clinks of spoons on chinaware in the kitchen. The low whistle of a tea kettle sounded, and the splashes of hot water being poured into the teacups followed. He fought to stay awake, but the reward of hearing his parents speaking in quiet tones to one another was more than enough for him.

"I wanna do things right this time, Lyla. No unexplained absences, no one night stand. I want to date you, and be part of our son's life, and I want you to be part of mine." August could hear Lyla hum with contentment, and the chairs scraped as they stood up from the table to look out the window at the square below. He smiled to himself and drifted closer into sleep. He was finally found.


	3. Chapter Two

A/N: Yes, I know I haven't updated in ages. Almost quite literally. I've got so much stuff going on in my life right now, but with the winter holiday from my university, I've suddenly found myself with time on my hands. Seeing if anybody is still out there reading...

Chapter 3

The first thing Lyla heard the next morning was the heavy breathing of someone sleeping beside her. She opened her eyes, squinting from the morning sun that flooded in the windows. It took her a few moments to take in her surroundings and realize that the arm protectively draped over her torso was Louis's. After a momentary panic, she let out a sigh of relief that she was fully clothed and he was too. But it would be awkward for Evan to find his parents sleeping in the same bed after one night of being reunited.

Failing to extricate herself gracefully from his arms, Lyla fell with a "thump" to the hardwood floor, crying out in alarm. Louis woke with a start, peering over the edge of the couch, searching for the source of the sound, and then laughed to see Lyla sprawled on the floor.

Both heard a giggle, and turned to the doorway to find an eleven year old boy watching the pair with a bemused expression. It was still strange for Lyla to hear her mind identify the beautiful child with Louis' eyes as her son, even after months of looking at his picture. Here he was, living and breathing, with little eyes that blinked and a mouth that had a sing-song voice and an innocent smile.

Louis cleared his throat, and interrupted Lyla from her daydream.

"Oh." She gathered herself and stood up, straightening last night's clothes. "I guess you'll be needing breakfast. What do you like?"

August paused for a moment, almost confused about the implications of the question. "I'm not sure what I like." At the children's home, there had been only one option: warm cereal. When he was living in the abandoned concert hall with the Wizard, breakfast was sometimes ignored and other times it was cold pizza or leftovers from the night before. He had never been given the choice before.

Louis let out a low whistle. "A kid's gotta have a favorite breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day!" He grinned, letting August know he was joking around with him. "I guess we'll just have to try all of the options until we find the right one. This morning, we'll start with french toast; it was me mam's specialty back home."

Lyla smiled warmly. "Mine too," she stated quietly, remembering the few recollections of her mother, mostly of her making breakfast for her and her father on Sunday mornings after church. It Lyla's favorite day of the week, because her mother would always get dressed up to play cello for the church choir, and sometimes Lyla got to dress up too.

She sobered up and removed herself from her recollections when she realized she didn't even know if Louis was religious, although she could assume he was some sort of Protestant. And what of their son? He probably hadn't been baptized; he had spent his entire life in the care of the state. There were so many things she hadn't even considered: so many questions, so many things to discuss. It was overwhelming.

"Lyla… Lyla!"

Louis' voice snapped her out of her trance, and the sizzling of the french toast cooking on the pan brought her back to the kitchen in her Washington Square apartment. "Do you have cinnamon?" He asked, his eyes filled with a genuine concern for Lyla's dazed expression.

"What?" She asked, genuinely confused. After all, what did religion and spices have to do with one another?

"Cinnamon. For the french toast. Do you have any?"

Lyla laughed at the request. "Of course. In the third cabinet over the sink." She paused for a moment as he retrieved it from her spice cabinet. "Are you religious Louis?"

He turned from the stove and grinned at her. His crooked smile sent shivers down her spine every time; would he ever know how that affected her? "In the conventional way, yeah. My parents raised me and me brothers like any other Irish-Catholics, but it didn't really stick durin' those early years without 'em. A few years ago I started goin' again ev'ry Sunday. I can't say that God hasn't tested me faith though; I've had me doubts before. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "I was thinking about how my mother would make breakfast for my father and I before church every Sunday. And then I realized how little I really know about you."

Louis stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek. The place where his lips touched burned for a few seconds afterwards and her pulse quickened only slightly. "We'll get to know each other, bit by bit. I can promise you that." He said, stepping back again and looking her square in the eyes. She smiled back at him weakly.

August walked into the kitchen sniffing the air. "What's that smell?" he asked, just as the smoke detector began sounding, its squeal unable to drown out Louis cussing over their burned breakfast.

"Shite!" He said again, dousing the burned pan with cold water, causing even more smoke to fill the kitchen.

Over the high beeping of the smoke detector, Lyla suggested breakfast at the diner instead.

* * *

It was no later than noon on Monday when the phone rang in Lyla's apartment. Lyla was at the grocery store, but Louis, who had set up camp in the living room, was just stepping out of the shower when August handed him the phone. "It's Mr. Jeffries."

They would have to come in and consent to DNA testing, but a judge had granted Lyla and Louis custody of August until further notice. Since they were not together, the final living arrangements would be set during a court date after the tests. Until then, they could work out living arrangements however they so pleased.

Lyla was overjoyed to hear the news when she returned from shopping. "What do we do now?" she asked.

Louis shrugged. "I guess we should see about getting him back into classes at that school of yours."

"You mean Julliard." She corrected him.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Julliard. And what about our living situation? I guess I should find me a hotel or something. Can't sleep on a couch much longer 'fore me back gives out."

"Well," Lyla paused for a significant moment, clearly thinking carefully over what she was about to say. "I think it might be important to consider a more permanent arrangement—we should talk about our plans for the future before making any decisions." She chewed her lip nervously, carefully watching Louis' reaction to this suggestion.

He exhaled loudly. "Yeah, that's a bit important." He shifted his weight between both feet, causing the floorboards to creak impatiently. "Had you planned to return to Chicago? I could easily get a transfer anywhere." He had been silently weighing the options for two days now, although he dared not admit that.

Lyla had been exhausting herself with thoughts of the future as well. She honestly felt no guilt leaving Chicago behind, save for her students, but they would move on if they hadn't already. And Lizzie was moving with her husband to San Francisco anyway, so it would be awfully lonely without her best friend in Chicago.

"Someone has already taken over my students in Chicago," she said. "I could get a position anywhere, if you wanted, or here at Julliard, if we wanted to keep August enrolled there."

Louis took a deep breath before diving into his proposal.

"Well, I think it should ultimately be up to the kid, but I've been researchin' music schools for young kids like him the past few days, and I found a really prestigious one in San Francisco. I already have a decent sized apartment there- it's got a guest room and an office we could make into another bedroom. And he'd have family there: my brothers an' their families are all in the area. We could get a fresh start there, Lyla, an honest-to-God blank slate."

His eyes searched Lyla's as he finished his impassioned pitch, and Lyla hesitantly smiled. She would miss this city, where she had gone to school, where she had met Louis, where she had lost her son and found him again. But New York held so many memories-- and not all of them good. They could use a fresh start. Somewhere where August would have family. And Lizzie would be there too.

"Well, if it's what August wants… then I think I'd like that very much."


End file.
